IndyBar News

Attorney Volunteers Needed for IndyBar Homeless Shelter Project

Want to Make an Impact? The IndyBar Homeless Shelter Project is looking for attorney volunteers. Through this project, IndyBar volunteers visit four local homeless shelters each month, giving legal advice and occasionally offering limited representation.

Volunteers typically serve four two-hour shifts per year, from 7 to 9 p.m., and visit the shelters in pairs. New volunteers will be rotated into the July to December 2012 schedule. Training is not provided, but volunteers are given the 2012 edition of the "Commonly Asked Questions About Indiana Law" resource guide and will be paired with a veteran volunteer. To volunteer or get further information, please contact Caren Chopp at cchopp@indybar.org.

One longtime volunteer describes his participation like this:
Offering limited representation can be equally rewarding for the client and the attorney. For example, one client not only was homeless and trying to raise his son after his wife died, but all of his possessions other than the clothes on his back were being wrongfully help by a storage company. It is hard to describe the joy in the client’s eyes when he received his property back from the storage facility at no cost.

It is more than just answering legal questions—it is providing hope and encouragement to individuals who many times have no reason to hope. Just volunteer and you will experience joy in helping people every time equal to the joy experienced handling your first case out of law school.